1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an AC adapter unit that compactly houses the AC adapter block and DC cable so that radiation noise from the DC cable is not amplified, to a storage tray for the AC adapter, and to an electronic device unit.
2. Related Art
Electronic devices, including printers, that are driven by DC power commonly have an AC adapter separate from the electronic device as a power supply that converts AC power to DC power. For example, the AC adapter taught in Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2000-164306 has an AC adapter block in which an AC inlet, to which an AC cable is removably connected, is formed, and a DC cable extending from the AC adapter block. If the AC cable is connected to the AC inlet and the plug of the AC cable is connected to an AC power outlet, the AC power supplied through the AC cable to the AC adapter is converted by the AC adapter block to DC power and supplied through the DC cable to the electronic device.
The DC cable of the AC adapter is generally long enough that the electronic device can be placed where desired by extending the DC cable. As a result, this long DC cable can interfere when the AC adapter block is placed near the electronic device. By using a single AC adapter that meets required safety standards for a plurality of different electronic devices, the production cost can be kept down while assuring product safety. Providing plural AC adapters with different DC cable lengths as the AC adapter for a single electronic device is therefore difficult.
This problem can conceivably be solved by bundling and storing the DC cable with the AC adapter block in the housing of the electronic device or a storage case. However, depending on how the DC cable is bundled and the relative positions of the DC cable and the AC adapter block when stored together, radiation noise from the DC cable may be amplified when the AC adapter is used as the power supply and adversely affect other nearby electronic devices.